A car rental, rent-a-car or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time (ranging from a few hours to a few weeks) for a fee. It is an elaborate form of a rental shop, organized in numerous local branches, primarily located near airports or busy city areas and often complemented by a website allowing online reservations. There are also third party websites (such as online travel agencies) which compare quotes from the major car rental agencies. Car rental agencies primarily serve people who have a car that is temporarily out of reach or out of service, for example travelers who are out of town or owners of damaged or destroyed vehicles who are awaiting repair or insurance compensation. Because of the variety of sizes of their vehicles, car rental agencies may also serve the self-moving industry needs, by renting vans or trucks. wiki car rental Car rentals are subject to many conditions which vary from one brand to another. The vehicle must be returned in a good condition and must not exceed a maximum driven distance, otherwise extra fees may be incurred. Additionally, some companies set a minimum age for the vehicle driver, which in some cases is as high as 25, even in countries where the minimum legal age to hold a driver's license is much lower. Recent conditions have utilised GPS technology to limit maximum speeds or driving to specific regions. Renewable fuel vehicles are available in certain areas.

The vast majority of car rental companies require the use of a Credit card to make it easier for them to trace a person after they have stolen a car, or to charge additional fees at will if a defect is later found with the car. There are two major types of car hire companies. The first group of companies own their own cars (known as a fleet) and may have agreements with car manufacturers to provide all the cars for that fleet. An example of this type of company would be Alamo or Europcar. The other type of car hire company operate on a broker model and have commercial agreements with car hire companies to provide access to their fleets of cars. To allow for a uniform classification and easy comparison of car rental prices, the Association of Car Rental Industry Systems and Standards (ACRISS) has developed the ACRISS_Car_Classification_Code coding system. This describes the size, dourcount, gearbox type (manual/automatic) and whether the car is air-conditioned in a short code.

City Car

A city car is a small, moderately powered automobile intended for use in urban areas. It has four seats, they are typically between 3.4 m and 3.6 m long. These cars have been sold in Europe since the 1960s, and now are an official car classification. Most mainstream manufacturers have one or even two city cars in their lineup. The city car's greater speed and occupant protection allow relatively safe operation in mixed traffic environments and in all weather conditions. One of the earliest city cars was the American-made Crosley, a four passenger vehicle from the late 1940's. While many cars of the 1960s are small enough to be considered city cars today, these cars have been replaced by larger cars with each passing generation. Exceptions are the smaller Fiats, especially the Fiat 500 and Fiat 126. They were in the region of 3.0 meters in length, but had seating for four people, putting them outside the micro car category. wiki city car In the late 1980s superminis had grown so much that many buyers wanted even smaller four-seat cars. Renault followed Fiat in 1993 with the Renault Twingo, which featured a MPV-like design and interior room, despite its size and height (3430 mm long and 1420 mm tall). Combined with an original exterior and interior design, it quickly became a best-seller. In 1996 the Ford Ka was presented with its radical New Edge design. Its egg-shaped body did not leave much room in the rear seats, but many customers did not need them and preferred the Ka over more conservative designs.

In the mid 1990s, South Korean brands Daewoo and Hyundai introduced their city car entries, both for the Asian and European markets. The Hyundai Atos, launched in 1997, was 3500 mm long and 1600 mm high, which was much taller than any European models (usually under 1450 mm) and provided considerable interior space. Its boxy shape provoked mixed reactions.

The Daewoo Matiz followed in 1998 with a Giorgetto Giugiaro design and a moderate height (1500 mm), which proved more eye-catching. Hyundai tried to react to this with the rounder Atos Prime but without much success.

These Korean city cars were much cheaper than most of the European models, especially the Opel Agila (2000) and Volkswagen Lupo (1999), yet were still reliable. However, sales were dominated by the Renault Twingo and Ford Ka.

City car / supermini crossovers

While small family cars and superminis grew considerably from the 1990s to the 2000s, so happened with city cars. After some new superminis were over 3900 mm long (like the Ford Fiesta, the SEAT Ibiza, Maruti Alto and the Volkswagen Polo) some automakers designed models above 3650 mm long.

The first of these models was the Nissan Micra (2002), which is 3720 mm long and smaller that many superminis of the late 1990s. Other cars are the Citroën C2, Suzuki Swift, Smart Forfour, Toyota Yaris and Peugeot 1007 (the last one which can also be labelled as a mini MPV). These vehicles are hard to classify, since their size does not fit the "city car" or "supermini" categories. A possibility is to compare the price and interior room with superminis: the Yaris is definitely a supermini, whereas the Tata Indica is closer to a city car. In addition, in the last few years some "true" city cars were released, like the Fiat Panda (2003), the Kia Picanto (2004) and the Citroën C1/Peugeot 107/Toyota Aygo trio. Other mainstream European manufacturers will release all-new models in 2007: the Renault Twingo, Fiat Nuova 500 and the Ford Ka.

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